Fans land leading role in Bay City Rollers musical

One of those real-life tartan teenagers was Gail Shackley from Manchester.

Gail said she had been a “die-hard fan” since Bye Bye Baby was number one in March 1975.

Being from Manchester, she said the Edinburgh band were like “the boys next door”.

So, loving the band became easy because they were easily accessible to UK fans.

“They were ours, you latch onto your own,” she said.

She fell away from the band when they became a global success and toured the UK less but years later she was able to roll back to them after attending a gig in 1994.

She said she was shocked to have remembered every word to every song.

“It was like riding a bike, you never forget,” she said.

Gail met Les McKeown, the original frontman of the band, at an intimate gig of his band Egotrip in 1997.

She fondly remembers how her “teenage heartthrob” had brought out food and drinks to the 20 or so fans at the gig.

“After that, I was back on the scene like I’d never been off it,” she said.

She remained a close follower of McKeown, who died in 2021, and is now working with his wife and son to raise funds to be able to get a dedicated bench for the late singer in Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens.

The superfan says that now is a good time for a play like this since it has become “cooler” to like the band.

She says she is interested to see how it will pan out and hopes it will be relatable to fans like her.

“Who doesn’t like a trip down memory lane?”, she says.

Rollers Forever will open at the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, in August 2025.